Leading marine biologist wants total fishing ban in marine park off Tiwi Islands
A LEADING marine biologist has called for the Oceanic Shoals Marine Park, northwest of the Tiwi Islands, to be closed to recreational and commercial fishing
Northern Territory
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A LEADING marine biologist has called for the Oceanic Shoals Marine Park, northwest of the Tiwi Islands, to be closed to recreational and commercial fishing.
University of Western Australia Professor of Marine Science Jessica Meeuwig said her study Frontiers in Marine Science found even partial protection of the marine park would still produce damaging results.
“It’s a really diverse spot and the government rightly made it a marine park but they wrongly failed to put in real protections, so there’s all sorts of damaging fishing activities that are permitted there,” she said.
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Prof Meeuwig said she feared what was happening at Australia’s east coast marine parks would happen to the Oceanic Shoals if it wasn’t properly protected.
“It’ll be like every other place in the world where the number of sharks, tunas, just keep declining,” she said.
“We’re seeing in Australia, on the east coast in Queensland, hammerhead sharks are down by 8 per cent compared to 30 years ago.
“If we continue to fish the way we fish, we will have empty oceans.”
With an international government goal to protect 10 per cent of the ocean, Prof Meeuwig said the government was failing with less than 3 per cent of Australia’s oceans protected.
“2.5 per cent of the ocean is fully protected. What matters is the principle saying partial protection doesn’t work,” she said.
“What Australia says is ‘we’ve put 30 per cent into marine parks’ but only a fraction of that is protected.”
However, Prof Meeuwig said fishos could still enjoy Territory waters if the marine park was to fully close.
“I think we all need to understand oceans matter to us, whether we look to go for a fish or a snorkel,” she said.
“What we’ve got now is not good enough. There’s lots of benefits. When we protect areas, fishing improves around them. When we protect areas, we have more resilience to climate change, we support tourism because people want to look at fish, not dead places.”
Amateur Fishermen’s Association of the NT chief executive David Ciaravolo said while it was important to look after the marine park, the level of fishing occurring did not warrant it being banned all together.
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“I think calls to ban all kinds of fishing in the Oceanic Shoals Marine Park are completely unjustified,” he said.
“I would say that recreational fishing is compatible with the objective of the marine park.”
Mr Ciaravolo said the Territory’s current legislation had worked to ensure recreational fishos could use the areas while limiting their environmental footprint.
Originally published as Leading marine biologist wants total fishing ban in marine park off Tiwi Islands